This is a problem that I am not sure of how to solve - does anyone here have any ideas??

Hi Yvette, Dave and Stan;

We have been keeping all of you in our thoughts and we believe that all is well. I am writing about Merlin the blue, eyed gift.
(Merlin is a catahoula and a Burns Lake Pound pup so we have no history on him - this picture is when he arrived at TG)

He has been a wonderful addition to our family and we love him dearly. He is on his way to being two and I think that he is developmentally appropriate and maturing very nicely. He will not leave the yard without a family member; deer, cats, neighbors all can not entice him to leave without permission. He only barks if something out of the ordinary occurs (which is once a month) and he acts like a brother to our cat who is also two and a male.

There is one issue that we can not seem to train (relax) Merlin over. He is obsessed with cyling-fans. If he sees one that is not spinning he will look up every 10 seconds to make sure it doesn’t start. In our own house we have three and they are needed all year long, we have decided that we need to work through this with him. Now is the time. If the fan is turning, Merlin will cower and inch his way through or around the room until he can make it safely downstairs to hide on his bed. If he is outside, he will run into his dog house. We have tried several tactics…
1) Ignore the behavior and introduce Merlin to the fan being no big deal and not staring at it the entire time it moves.
2) Accountability, if Merlin is asked to come and he doesn’t, one of us will walk to him and while holding is collar comfortably, walk him to where he was supposed to go and talk positively while he is doing what was requested.
3) Rewarding with treats– he is only somewhat interested, the fan fear is bigger that the idea of a treat.
4) Play while in a area that the fan is to take his mind off of the distraction. We use barriers so that he has to stay in the main room of the house and I try to correct Merlin’s obsession of looking at the fan before he has the chance or the detract him once he spies it.

Merlin is very healthy. He gets lots of exercise, adequate diet and has dog duties that he seems proud of. When the fan is off, he seems like a well adjusted, great natured guy. When the fan is on he is as neurotic as they come.

It doesn’t seem to matter if the fan is at the 8 foot level or not. The main room in our house has a fan 20′ up and this is the fan that seems to cause the most fear in Merlin. I have run out of ideas and the winter is fan season for us- it is an integral part of our heating system. We are interested in any thoughts that you may have.

Thanks,
Paula and Dennis Graham

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